


I'm Sorry

by WishfulKittyKat1



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Character Death, Sad Ending, kinda depressing ngl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23826922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishfulKittyKat1/pseuds/WishfulKittyKat1
Summary: Tikki has lived with too many Ladybugs to be naive. She knows how this goes.That doesn't mean she likes it.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Tikki, Plagg & Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 57





	I'm Sorry

Tikki knew that there were two ways that this could end, and neither one of them ended with her saying goodbye. No one could do this forever.

For a kwami, goodbye was “Spots on!”

Goodbye was “I’m sorry.”

She was used to it, after all: Ladybug after Ladybug had worn her Miraculous, only to fall someday. No human can live forever, and heroes last shorter than most. For this Ladybug’s sake, Tikki hoped that nothing would happen for a long time.

And it didn’t.

They went into battle less and less often as the years went by, as years of swinging from rooftops and being thrown into buildings caught up to Marinette. Her Chat Noir was always there, of course, in costume and out, but he could only do so much before the broken ribs caught up to him too.

Children only made it worse, and then they had diapers to change and heads to soothe, and they just weren’t able to protect Paris as much anymore.

“We’re losing them, Plagg,” she whispered to the black kwami one night, as Adrien and Marinette lay tangled up in one another. 

Plagg only sighed and rested his head on her shoulder, hovering above the Miraculous holders’ heads. “It was a matter of time,” he said, and even though he was better at hiding it than she was, Tikki had known him for too many Ladybugs to miss the break in his voice. “No one can do this forever.”

She knew, of course, Tikki knew, but why did it have to hurt this much?

The first time Marinette took off the Miraculous since those early uncertain days, Tikki didn’t know what she was doing until it was too late. One moment she was hovering by Marinette’s shoulder, and then Marinette whispered “I’m sorry,” and then there was nothing but darkness. When Marinette put them back on, Tikki didn’t have the heart to ask why. Instead, when she was back where she belonged, hovering by Marinette’s ear, she just sighed.

“Oh, Marinette.”

No, no one could do this forever, and it was weighing on her Ladybug more and more every day.

After that first time, it was like some dam had been broken. Marinette took her off for little things, now, never with an explanation and rarely with an apology anymore. Adrien lasted longer, but he, too, couldn’t be Chat Noir forever, and soon Plagg cuddled up to her every night they were together because they didn’t know when the next time that they would see each other was.

Ladybug and Chat Noir didn’t know what they were thinking, Tikki knew, and the kwamis didn’t tell them, just kept waiting. Waiting for someone to make a mistake, or for the lights to just go out and not come back on again.

There were only two ways for this to end, and neither one of them ended with Tikki saying goodbye.

Plagg ended first.

A mistake, for him.

A simple mistake in the suit, not even one against a powered opponent, but a simple mugger who could have been arrested by the police instead of Chat Noir, but he was there until there was a bullet hole in his suit and Chat wasn’t there anymore and Marinette decided it wasn’t worth it. Marinette returned the Miraculous of Destruction to the keeper, and Tikki grieved the loss of two friends that day.

Plagg, much like Tikki, had never gotten to say goodbye. Not in the way that she knew that he'd wanted to.

After that, there was nothing but darkness for a long time.

The next time Marinette brought her out, they were alone.

“The kids aren’t here anymore, Tikki,” Marinette rasped. Tikki missed the energetic little thing who’d stumbled her way around a crush. But that girl was gone, long gone and replaced by this shriveled lady whose hair was more white than grey. “No one’s here anymore. It’s been a while since we last saw each other, huh?”

Tikki didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to ask why, because she’d gone so long without asking why that she didn’t even know how to begin. “Oh, Marinette,” she settled for, and her Ladybug burst into tears.

“I miss him, Tikki!” Marinette cried. “It’s been so long, and the kids never even knew, but they have their own families now and I have no one and I miss him.”

The two of them talked. They really talked, for the first time in what could have been a thousand years for all Tikki knew.

Marinette kept the Miraculous in for a long time.

Tikki woke in the middle of the night, flying from her place curled up against Marinette’s chest. There was something wrong, badly wrong, and Tikki didn’t know what it was or how to help. Marinette was choking, gasping, breathing wrong or not at all. 

“I’m sorry, Tikki,” she managed. And then, all at once, she stopped. Stopped choking, stopped breathing, and this was much, much worse

She didn’t move.

Tikki knew that there were two ways that this could end, and neither one of them ended with her saying goodbye. No one could do this forever.

For a kwami, goodbye was “Spots on!”

Goodbye was “I’m sorry.”


End file.
